arnaque

\aʁ.nak\

/\aʁ.nak\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“arnaque” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #7,523. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#7,523
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Police.

Corpus desk

Index FR-arnaque · arnaque · French

arnaque · rank #7,523 · 9 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,523
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH approprié

Nearest frequency peer: approprié (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « arnaque »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « arnaque » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

arnaque vs Arnaud
57% similar
arnaque vs attaque
71% similar
arnaque vs arnaques
88% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for arnaque
PropertyValue
Headwordarnaque
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\aʁ.nak\
Letters7
Frequency rank#7,523
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « arnaque »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.arnaquese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « approprié » (#7,522), « artistiques » (#7,524), « appli » (#7,521). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « arnaque » est au #7,523. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around arnaque (IPA \aʁ.nak\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,523 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for arnaque, with forms such as "anraque", "aranque", and "arnaqeu". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Arnaud", "attaque", "arnaques", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is arnaque, spelled A-R-N-A-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Police.
  2. 2
    Escroquerie ; tromperie ; œuvre d'un filou.
  3. 3
    Offre commerciale disproportionnée ou inéquitable, à l'avantage majoritaire du vendeur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how arnaque appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. — Vous êtes au courant de l’arnaque ? C'est l’hypercherie ! L’embrouille totale. Tout est truqué. Silbermann, ça vous dit quelque chose ? C'est lui le cerveau de la magouille !
  2. Rien à voir, le vicelard dans la pègre, pour situer les choses en gros, c'est celui qui louvoie, saisit l’occase des bonnes arnaques avec un minimum de risques... celui qui sait mener les bonnes embrouilles, qui manœuvre pour s'en sortir... s'arracher à la scoumoune.

Synonyms

escroquerieabus de confiance

This word in other languages

rip-off(English)Abzocke(Deutsch)fraude(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • anraque
  • aranque
  • arnaqeu
  • arnaqque
  • arnauqe
  • arnnaque
  • arnqaue
  • arrnaque
  • ranaque

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of arnaque - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

anraque2aranque2arnaqeu2arnaqque1arnauqe2arnnaque1arnqaue2arrnaque1
Edit distance from "arnaque"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "arnaque"?
"arnaque" is spelled A-R-N-A-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \aʁ.nak\.
What does "arnaque" mean?
As a noun, "arnaque" means: Police.
What words are commonly confused with "arnaque"?
"arnaque" is commonly confused with "Arnaud", "attaque", "arnaques". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "arnaque"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "arnaque" is \aʁ.nak\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "arnaque" come from?
"arnaque" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "arnaque", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ajoutée#7,517casting#7,538combler#7,543devriez#7,552

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

rompre9 variantsdétenu9 variantsguérir9 variantsnobles9 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list